Our food may soon look very different if synthetic dyes are eliminated. For @newyorker.com I wrote about the hunt for stable natural colorants: www.newyorker.com/science/elem...

How much is the psychedelic experience influenced by what we see, hear and read? We made a way to measure it: The Psychedelic Media Exposure Questionnaire - developed by Audrey Evers, Chris Kelly, @shaylalove.bsky.social , @tehseennoorani.bsky.social, validated on >600 respondents. Link below:

Earlier this year, I went from Iowa to central Sardinia to write about the efforts to make American cities more like “blue zones,” the now-controversial longevity hot spots. In the @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/1883...

Last December, I went to the French Alps to write about a medical mystery: In a small village, more than a dozen people were diagnosed with ALS, 10x higher than expected. This is the result of a decade-long investigation to try to understand why. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Insects are small, they don’t scream or bleed red, and many are considered pests; we tend to kill or mutilate them without pause. For @newyorker.com I wrote about the investigations into whether insects feel pain. www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...

On today's edition of '100 Years of 100 Things', @shaylalove.bsky.social connected the rise of RFK jr. to the wellness trends in American history. www.wnyc.org/story/100-ye...

Nothing could be more delightful than reading @shaylalove.bsky.social on 19th century wellness influencers, and their spiritual successor, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Our Goop-ified health world may seem fundamentally modern, but there is a direct line between today’s wellness industry and the mid-1800s/ early 20th century. I wrote how the history of wellness is the best way to understand RFK Jr.'s appeal: www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Earlier this year, I went from Iowa to central Sardinia to write about the efforts to make American cities more like “blue zones,” the now-controversial longevity hot spots. In the @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/1883...

If you, too, enjoy "is this grift?" stories that move from immortality desires to research errors to the Aspen Ideas Festival to our ambivalent relationship to modernity, you must MUST read this @shaylalove.bsky.social piece on the Blue Zones scandal. It's got it all. newrepublic.com/article/1883...

I talked to @shaylalove.bsky.social about the paradox of non-psychedelic trips www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Modern psychedelic users and advocates, as a group, have no consistent political slant. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

I wrote about the growing overlap between psychedelic and longevity communities. As Bryan Johnson told me: “Psychedelics and longevity seem like long-lost best friends.” www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

I love this story by @shaylalove.bsky.social so much!!!! www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a4...

Louise Glück 🖤

The sensation we call dizziness is a sort of general alarm system for the body—but just as a fire alarm can’t tell you where a fire is burning (or whether someone walked through the emergency exit by mistake), it doesn’t necessarily tell you what’s wrong. www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...

Them: "Oh so you're an academic, what are some of your sayings?" Me:

For Scientific American, I went to the Chelsea Physic Garden in London—a botanical haven filled with poisonous and medicinal plants 🌱🌿🪴 open.spotify.com/episode/0iIt...

Neurologist Harold Wolff on "migraine personality" and fashion choices: "Among the men polished shoes, pressed trousers and neatly arranged neckwear and hair were conspicuous. The women sometimes sacrificed a degree of attractiveness for austerity or severe neatness." psyche.co/ideas/can-a-...

favorite quotes from this piece: “Holes require a host...Doughnut holes require a doughnut."—Chaz Firestone Absences (shadows, holes, silence) are "like the fruit flies of metaphysics."— Roy Sorensen https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-actually-hear-silence/

I saw Freud’s favorite statue up close: Athena. When he fled from Vienna to London, he asked Maria Bonaparte to smuggle it out in her pocket. Freud referred to it as a symbol of women’s penis envy, because she is missing her spear